NCAA Basketball Bets: Why The Tar Heels Will Win
Writing by admin on Thursday, 22 of March , 2007 at 3:58 pm
Why does everyone have such a hate-on for the Tar Heels?
North Carolina is being singled out as the most likely No. 1 seed to take an early shower at the NCAA men’s basketball Tournament. Fair enough; as talented as the Tar Heels are, they’re still young. They get caught napping every once in a while – maybe it’s the Ambien.
But I come to praise the Heels, not bury them. North Carolina was supposed to be in a rebuilding mode last year after the team got strip-mined by the NBA draft. All the frosh-laden Tar Heels did was go 21-6 straight up (18-7 against the spread) during the regular season before falling prey to those pesky George Mason Patriots at the big dance. Even the densest pack of “student-athletes” would learn a thing or two from that experience; North Carolina’s 20-13 ATS record this year would suggest they’re on a steep learning curve.
Apparently the Heels are made of Adamantium, because handicappers are lining up to lay their hard-earned cash on the No. 5 USC Trojans when they face UNC on Friday night. Ex-squeeze me? It’s one thing to beat a Texas team that was playing well above expectations – how good would Kevin Durant look in, say, whatever uniforms the Seattle Supersonics will wear next year – but chopping down those North Carolina hickories is another matter. The Heels enjoy the third-best rebounding margin in college at plus-8.5, even higher than fellow No. 1 seeds Florida (8.4) and Kansas (7.8).
I’m going to blame the Texas upset and UNC’s status as an 8.5-point chalk for the mad rush toward the Trojans. Otherwise, North Carolina’s combination of talent, offensive balance, depth and hunger makes them the pick of the Sweet 16 litter. OK, provided coach Roy Williams gives them a kick in the pants. All he should have to do is point at what happened to the Longhorns.
This sportsbook has all the Sweet 16 and NCAA odds.
Category: Online College Basketball Betting
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